From The Central Pennsylvania Ragtime & American Music Festival

The eleventh annual Central Pennsylvania Ragtime & American Music Festival took place on September 20-22 in Orbisonia and Mount Union. There was a slight change of venue this year—all of Sunday’s events took place at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Mt. Union. In past years, only the Sunday musical worship service occurred there; all the others were at the Orbisonia Presbyterian Church and the Rockhill Trolley Museum. The roster of performers varied a little from past years. In addition to the regulars—pianists Brian Holland, Richard Dowling, Frederick Hodges, Adam Swanson, and Bryan Wright, and drummer Danny Coots—two more pianists were added: Daniel Souvigny and Ed Clute. Daniel had been here before. He is now studying music at Northern Illinois University, having found the Berklee School in Boston not to his liking. Ed made his first appearance, and hopefully not his last. Longtime readers of this paper may remember the feature on Ed in the February 2016 issue. Blind since birth, Ed recently recorded his second CD on the Rivermont label. I must also mention Yuko Wright, who occasionally sings to accompany husband Bryan. During Sunday’s concert Yuko sang with their 12-week-old daughter Kiyomi in harness, who slept through the entire performance of “What, No Spinach?,” spoofed to “What, No Sushi?” I have attended this festival every year since the date was chan